Triscribe

Category: Manhattan

  • A NaNoWriMo 2011 recap

    National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has come and gone.  As a follow up to a previous post on NaNoWriMo as I have been going through it: a recap!

    Yeah, I did it – I hit the 50k, ending the month at 55,364 words (well, according to the NaNoWriMo validator; I had bizarre footnotes that didn’t get picked up in the cut and paste from MS Word to the NaNoWriMo validator).

    Is the story actually “finished”?  I managed to give it a title, “Living in the Gray,” and it seems to be about how the COO of this technologically-inclined corporation learns of corporate espionage going on against his corporation (but there’s no proof!), that he doesn’t really know what’s going in with bad accounting in his corporation, that the CEO is getting friendly with various international criminals, including an elderly war criminal but there’s no proof there either of why he’s doing that, and that the Little Orphan Annie like character isn’t happy that the COO isn’t going to take down crazy CEO (and besides being a drunk and being repeatedly referred to as a megalomaniac, is the CEO really “crazy”?).  At the “end,” the COO makes a decision to challenge the CEO, but the COO is staring into the sunrise, ambiguously…

    Oh, and a wormhole showed up in the mid-chapters.  I really still don’t know why, other than my desperate desire for “action” and writing vigorously at a write-in with the other NYC Wrimo’s.  And, I literally ended on “to be continued?”  My previous Nano’s did not have the question mark, if only because I had ideas to eventually return and expand, and desire to revise.  This one – not so sure.  This wasn’t a Nano that I’m feeling terribly fond of at the moment.

    Will this ever see the light of day?  Probably not.  But, I am feeling a little inspired to get back to revising one of my past Nano’s as a 2012 project, and at least I got back to writing fiction again, even when I so didn’t feel like it or even when I didn’t feel into this story and the characters.  The process got me to realize that I kept going, even if I didn’t really want to – probably a life lesson in there, somewhere.

    Plus, NYC NaNoWriMo is a good bunch of crazy writing people.  We kept at it!  We did it – 50k or not, we wrote our asses off.  We do it because we can.

    Last night, we had our Thank God It’s Over (TGIO) party in downtown Manhattan.  Our Municipal Liaison fshk announced how we got into a Village Voice article (fshk and alexisdaria and others got quoted) – so cool!  NYC NaNoWriMo rocks!

    Writing fiction (and reading fiction) – to be continued…

    (cross-posted at sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com).

  • 11/11/11

    On this Veterans’ Day: A salute and thank you to past, present, and future Armed Services members. Take a moment to think about them and how we can all do better for/with them.

    Oh, and take a look at the video that FC posted from last year’s Veterans’ Day.

    JP Morgan Chase underwrote the Veterans’ Day parade in Manhattan today. They have a bunch of programs for vets, some new (per their announcements link) including a jobs program.

    Some stuff I found so far on Tumblr: from New York Public Library and via the Atlantic: “In Flanders Field.”

    (cross-posted on sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com – see here)

  • Weekend!

    We of triscribe are having a fun-filled busy weekend (as usual).

    Yesterday:
    AABANY’s Fall Conference 2011     was great stuff! The sight of much fruit at a certain table was mesmerizing. Otherwise, great panelists, lively discussion, CLE (well, I have to report and re-register at the end of this year, so…), and seeing familiar faces and new ones. Plus: nice digs of the white shoe law firm to check out…

    Oh, and ramen. That was good ramen, I must say.

    Brooklyn Book Festival 2011 is TODAY! That is all.

    The story of Willow, the lost Colorado cat found in NYC, five years later. Cute cat, I must say. Plus, apparently, having the microchip really is a good way to locate the lost pet. But, the solution to how Willow ended up in NYC may be simple, but there are cynics, I guess.

    From Robert Krulwich at NPR: the Krebs Cycle. Man, I hadn’t heard of this since AP biology way back in high school…

    Oh Ryan Gosling; at least your roles are unique (go see “Crazy Stupid Love”!): Television w/o Pity with a Photo Gallery on how Gosling’s roles include lots of bad boyfriends (except maybe the one from “The Notebook” – who was initially a sad and lousy guy but who came through well at the end).

    So, yes, I have to get outside already, but can’t resist: what’s the deal with the Big East? Syracuse and Pittsburgh leaving? Teams NOT in the East coming? We do not have this in the Ivy League. Of course, we don’t have big championships either…

  • Stuff in September

    Josh Ozersky ponders on the Jewish love for Chinese food as this week’s subject of his food column on Time.com.

    Why am I not surprised that the Law & the Multiverse guys actually explore how Peter Parker is an independent contractor and Clark Kent isn’t? I’m not a Spiderman follower, but did Peter Parker ever take his photography work to a higher level? I mean, various versions of Clark have shown him to be a real journalist, not necessarily a bumbler… (must be that Superman thing).

    Angry Asian Man blog on the world biggest Spam musubi. That is a lot of Spam.

    h/t: wnyc’s tumblr blog – color photos of NYC from 1941 by Charles W. Cushman, over at the Daily Mail. Impressive. Bowling Green still looks the same…

    Oh, and last but not least: Joey Lawrence and Melissa Joan Hart – how is it that you two make the 1980’s/1990’s nostalgia so easy to swallow? (especially Joey – even if he is now going by “Joseph” these days – but he’ll always be Joey to me!). I was watching their ABC Family tv movie, “My Fake Fiance” and was pretty entertained. They play a couple who meet in one of those “I hate you/I love” moments and then get a fake engagement for the gifts and money – only to actually fall in love for real. Yes, it’s a typical romantic-comedy, but I liked their nice vibe and sensual chemistry.

    Melissa and Joey’s ABC Family tv series, “Melissa and Joey” is sort of a modern “Who’s The Boss,” but just a touch more yeah-eventually-they-will vibe in less than a season, than “Who’s The Boss” did after years of seasons on the air (I watched a lot of “Who’s the Boss” back in the day – and I liked how Judith Light’s Angela was such an empowered modern woman for the 1980’s and how Tony Danza’s Tony evolved from an ex-ball player to mature college student and future teacher). Is “Melissa and Joey” funny as a sitcom? Not really – I mean, “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” had more funny and that was because Salem the Talking Cat was just nuts – but the chemistry between Melissa and Joey (the characters) works for tv.

  • Time to Remember

    Taking a pause.

    I guess we’re feeling particularly reflective because it’s been 10 years. Sometimes it really doesn’t feel like it has gone by that long, sometimes it’s still too soon (history being a judge that takes its time).

    Consider this week’s posts: Reflecting, “The Towers’ Rise and Fall,” and some links for this past week.

    Links to our prior posts on this date may be found here.

    Last year’s soundtrack, as posted by FC.

  • Reflecting…

    I had taken this photo a couple of years ago at the Brooklyn Promenade. Figured that this was a good a time as any to post it.
    Another photo I had taken at the Brooklyn Promenade, a couple of years ago (maybe last year or two ago?).

  • “The Towers’ Rise and Fall”

    Amazing photo collection over at the NY Times: “The Towers’ Rise and Fall”. “Rise, Life, and Fall” – I don’t know – the pictures of the “life” are what really hit me even as they at least make me smile; the rest – the death part – is still too hard to look at without the visceral sadness.

  • This Week in September 2011

    We seem to be loaded with 10th anniversary of 9/11/01 items this week. I think I agree with this post by Linda Holmes, over at NPR’s Monkey See blog, regarding how much we can digest of the tributes and so forth as they appear on television. I’m not sure how much I want to be inundated by images of that day, and how visceral it can still feel. I especially agree with Holmes’ closing statement from her post:

    Think carefully about what you want to watch. Think carefully about immersion experiences, especially. They are potent, and depending on how suggestible you are, you may find that you are more transported than you intended.

    I did find this photographic review of the week before 9/11/01 over at the Atlantic’s website to be a very interesting photo tribute.

    A lot of food for thought this week.

    (cross-posted over at my tumblr blog: sswslitinmotion)

  • We Survived Hurricane Irene

    … and Probably Should Get the t-shirt to express the survival.

    Thankfully not so bad; we fared okay.

    New Yorkers insist on grumbling, of course.

    Look, I’m not going to second-guess the order to evacuate the coastal areas of the city or whether MTA didn’t need to shut down service. Hurricane Irene could have been a disaster and we got lucky. And, I’m glad to not have to hear about people trapped in Battery Park City or Coney Island or the Rockaways, or stuck in flooded subways or blown away on the elevated lines. Better to be safe than sorry – I’ll agree with the mayor on that.

    Check MTA for subway service updates for Monday. Looks like service is expected to be up by 6am.

    Pretty amazed – fascinating footage from AP, via NPR’s news blog. So the island of Manhattan was pretty unscathed; downtown was gushing with water during the height of Irene, but Times Square still glittered w/ lights, even if a people-less. Ah well.

  • Come On Irene

    At least the hype (hopefully hype) is exciting. I even got kicked out of the office early, but I work in Zone A, which got ordered a mandatory evacuation and the building’s landlord was turning off the electricity at 5pm.

    The following embedded video was from a friend of mine, MW. I share it as a mild form of hokey entertainment for us Triscribers. Better that than to freak out.

    Hope for the best, after all!

    In case you (still) need to check what zone you’re in: check the interactive map.

    As I note over at my other blog, all the libraries in the city are closed this weekend.

    Also, no subways after 12pm on Saturday (check the MTA on that). Of course, this means that, on the bright side, the mayor’s not going to tell us to take on a Broadway show. Stay safe! (and dry?)

    Oh, and don’t forget – have a manual can opener, if you’re going to have all that canned food this weekend. Just sayin’.